Marvin and Susan Wynn: Dedicated to living amid trials

Published 6:15 pm, Monday, December 1, 2014

Marvin and Susan Wynn photographed at their home Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Marvin and Susan Wynn photographed at their home Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: James Durbin

Marvin and Susan Wynn: Dedicated to living amid trials

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Wholeheartedly and with unwavering dedication, the gladsome Susan Wynn beholds her husband as “Mister Amazing,” certainly in his stellar career in economic development but especially so in resolutely battling debilitating Parkinson’s disease.

Like Sir Winston Churchill in times of trial and with vision, Marvin Wynn neither lingers nor relents but seeks solutions.

“Marvin is Mister Amazing,” said his wife, who encourages him in honing his independence while he gets about in his electric wheelchair, which he navigates with its joystick. “But we could not do all we do without the help of our very dear friends.”

The virtues that propelled Marvin Wynn to a celebrated career in economic development in the chamber of commerce realm in Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas beginning in the 1960s are reflected in his calm fortitude to take on, with aplomb, the progressive neurological disorder that is characterized by muscular rigidity, slow-motion and often imprecise muscular movements.

Vibrant in mind and spirit, though his body lags his will, rebels and moves painfully slow with irascible reluctance, Wynn at age 81 remains steadfastly earnest, cheery and optimistic. This is despite the reality of the debilitating disease diagnosed 14 years ago, when he was president and CEO of the Midland Chamber of Commerce.

An archangel of a wife for 38 years, Susan Wynn maintains her joyful presence in helping him survive the progressive malady.

“She (Susan) is the eternal optimist,” said Carol Nichols, friend of the Wynn couple. “Nothing bothers her. Nothing is too much trouble. She is so helpful, the closest thing to a saint on this Earth.”

Meanwhile, Marvin Wynn “keeps trying to be independent, never complains and is absolutely positive. He keeps going to church, to the ballgames and to dinner with friends ... very social,” Nichols said. “Marvin and Susan are two of the sweetest, kindest, gentle, wonderful people” whose sons Marc and Alan have blessed them with four grandchildren: Cooper, Reece and twins Heléna and Hannah.

Though retired for a decade, Marvin Wynn is remembered as a quietly stalwart and dynamic force and “the ultimate professional in economic development,” attested Bobby Burns, Midland’s mayor during most of Marvin Wynn’s chamber tenure and, since 2011, the chamber’s president and CEO.

Marvin Wynn “understood the community and understood the politics and what made the community better. He simply made good things happen.”

The dynamics of “Wynn’s quiet leadership,” Burns said, awakened and brought vibrant life to Midland’s economic-development efforts via the Midland Development Corporation (MDC), “which would not exist without Marvin Wynn.”

Most recently, that effort became the catalyst for Midland’s nascent entry into space travel and space technology.

Earlier, in the late 1960s into the early 1980s, Marvin Wynn became legendary in helping diversify Tulsa’s economy.

In his 1979 thesis on Tulsa’s economic development for the Economic Development Institute at the University of Oklahoma, Marvin Wynn cited a Government Executive magazine article that saluted the Tulsa chamber’s initiative in promoting the community’s growth and diversity.

“Most chambers of commerce operate comfortably some distance behind the leadership of the community,” the magazine said. Compared with “the usual public image of such groups, the Tulsa bunch is a hotbed of radicalism. The Tulsa Chamber of Commerce leads ... without regard for controversy.” Marvin Wynn was a vital part of that enterprise.

His reputation as an enterprising economic developer had so flourished that Delaware Gov. Pierre “Pete” Du Pont IV appointed Marvin Wynn his secretary of commerce. Marvin Wynn declined the political appointment.

Settling in Midland in 1994, Marvin Wynn quickly and quietly, without fanfare, developed rapport within the Midland community and its Odessa neighbor to the west.

“His honesty, integrity and business acumen makes him unique in chamber management,” said Mike George, the Odessa Chamber of Commerce president and CEO who worked closely with Marvin Wynn for whom he expressed “the utmost respect as a gentleman and businessman.”

Furthermore, “Susan is a saint,” George said. “She is supportive and self-giving to Marvin and to her entire community.”

Throughout his career, “Marvin was unquestionably one of the most respected and admired leaders in economic development in the Southwest” and beyond and experienced “extraordinary success” in that field, reflected Grant Billingsley, executive director of the Midland-based Scharbauer Foundation. “Marvin used his multitude of talents to make complex projects look simple to the untrained eye,” Billingsley said. Moreover, Marvin Wynn developed into a “master at planning, strategy, communications and building personal relationships.”

Always the “quiet leader who transfers his vision, energy and enthusiasm to the volunteers with whom he works,” Marvin Wynn thereby ensured that the volunteers would “enjoy the credit, not him.”

Like Billingsley, Doug Henson, president of the Midland-based SBC Foundation, asserted Marvin Wynn’s “integrity is unequaled” personally and professionally.

Linda Foster-Smith, a former Midland chamber volunteer and the 1999 chamber chair, said Marvin Wynn was “the quiet guy behind the scene, the orchestrator, the idea man, who had the vision” and the stamina quietly to pursue the economic-development tax that made the MDC possible. “He is such a brilliant mind.”

Most impressed by Susan Wynn’s devotion to her husband, Foster-Smith said, “This lady is one of my dearest friends ever. I can’t imagine life without her.”

Foster-Smith recalled that haunting event in 2001 when she and her late husband, John Foster, joined the Wynn couple in a trip to Europe. In Paris on that infamous Sept. 11, they were about to tour the Eiffel Tower when a French reporter greeted them for an interview on the terrorist attack of New York City and the Pentagon.

“Obviously, we had ‘America’ written all over us,” Foster-Smith said. Until then, they were unaware of the infamous attack on America.

Marvin Wynn, though early into his Parkinson’s disease, eloquently responded to the reporter. Foster-Smith said she was “blown away by Wynn’s assurance that all was going to be fine.” He told the reporter that “There is an answer” to why of the attack. “You just have to look for it” and go forward.

Marvin Wynn’s composure, his calmness, clarity, wisdom and insightfulness were all intact.

“And that’s how Marvin and Susan approached this Parkinson’s,” Foster-Smith said. “Marvin was already a walking, talking encyclopedia of Parkinson’s, though he (then) had no sign of it.”

While dealing with the disability and now getting around the house in his electric wheelchair and operating his computer and getting around town with the help of his wife and friends, Marvin Wynn “has never slowed down” particularly in his resourcefulness to “never give in.”

Fast friends to the Wynn couple in recent years, Midland rancher-oilman Ted Johnson and his wife, Ann, acclaim Marvin Wynn as “courageous” while watching the debilitating disease trying “to rob him of a full life.”

However, Marvin Wynn “refuses to let Parkinson’s define him and his life” even as his erstwhile strong voice has become a whisper bearing clarity and insight.

“His sense of humor, keen mind and positive attitude about life are making him a victor over a debilitating disease,” Ted Johnson observed. “It is fun to be with him and enjoy life with him.”